Westchester prosecutors say Pirro recorded office conversations

May 3, 2007

Jeanine Pirro / File photo/The Journal News

Written by

Timothy O'Connor

The Journal News

Former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro secretly taped numerous conversations in her office, then ordered the tapes destroyed as she was about to leave her post, county prosecutors said in court papers.

But the tapes weren't destroyed, and they are now part of the federal criminal probe into Pirro that began with allegations she conspired to illegally tape her husband, Albert Pirro Jr., in an effort to catch him cheating on her.

In another twist in the investigation, Pirro is now being represented by one of her fiercest critics, lawyer William Aronwald, who said in the fall that Pirro "seemingly conspired to violate federal eavesdropping laws."

"Enough of Jeanine Pirro," Aronwald wrote in a letter to The Journal News that ran Oct. 3, several days after it was revealed that Pirro and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik were being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI.

But yesterday, Aronwald said Pirro had committed no crime and he did not expect her to be indicted.

"The fact of the matter is whatever criticisms I've had of her in the past have nothing to due with what interests the government here," he said. "I strongly believe she has committed no crime. I think she's getting a raw deal."

Aronwald declined to comment on assertions by District Attorney Janet DiFiore's office that Pirro secretly recorded conversations in her office. But, he said, "assuming that it happened," he doesn't believe Pirro's actions would lead to criminal charges because taping is considered consensual under state law if one party is aware that the conversation is being recorded.

Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for DiFiore, declined to comment, as did Herbert Hadad, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia.

Bennett Gershman, a Pace University Law School professor and frequent Pirro critic, said she didn't violate the law by taping conversations, but it shows poor judgment on her part. The recordings could damage cases her office prosecuted, he said, if they involve information that should have been turned over to defense lawyers but wasn't.

"I have to say it's nefarious, serious and shocking," said Gershman, who wrote a textbook on prosecutorial misconduct.

Transcripts of two of the conversations Pirro secretly recorded were included in a new motion filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan by lawyers for Anthony DiSimone, the reputed Tanglewood Boys gang member convicted of killing a Yonkers college student outside a bar in February 1994.

DiSimone's conviction was overturned by a federal judge after county prosecutors admitted that Pirro's office failed to turn over evidence to DiSimone's lawyers during his trial.

A federal appeals court ruled that DiFiore's office could retry DiSimone in the death of Louis Balancio. But DiSimone's lawyers want the panel to reconsider and are using the newly revealed conversations to bolster their case. In December 1997, Pirro recorded a conversation she had with two of her assistant prosecutors and Mark Pomerantz, then the head of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Pomerantz said an FBI informant claimed Darin Mazzarella, a turncoat former Tanglewood Boys member who was originally charged in the case, had admitted killing Balancio.

Pomerantz, now in private practice, did not return calls seeking comment.

DiSimone's motion includes letters from Westchester County Assistant District Attorney Richard Hecht about Pirro's recording of phone calls and conversations.

"The fact that the then-District Attorney secretly recorded certain conversations in her office and on her telephone came to light during a still continuing federal grand jury investigation conducted jointly by the United States Attorney and this office," Hecht wrote in an April 25 letter to DiSimone's lawyer, David Feureisen.

In the letter, Hecht says the tapes were maintained by criminal investigators on Pirro's security detail. She ordered one of her investigators to destroy a box of tapes in late 2005 as she neared the end of her tenure, Hecht said. The tapes related to the DiSimone case were never maintained in the case file or any of the office files, he said.

DiSimone's lawyer, David Feureisen declined to comment.

Aronwald declined to comment on what impact the taping allegations might have on the DiSimone case, which was one of Pirro's signature prosecutions. He said he and Pirro had squared away their past differences.

"Obviously, the past is something that had to be addressed and it was addressed to both of our satisfactions," he said. "We have a very good working relationship. We're moving forward in trying to deal with what I consider to be a politically motivated investigation."